


All for One and One for All

by cmshaw



Category: Fire's Stone - Tanya Huff
Genre: Multi, Polyamory, Voyeurism, Yuletide, post-novel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-20
Updated: 2006-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 03:17:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1628717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cmshaw/pseuds/cmshaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Turn your back and off they go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All for One and One for All

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lisan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lisan/gifts).



> Many thanks to brooklinegirl and lightgetsin for the beta!
> 
> Written for lisan

 

 

Aba clucked her tongue and muttered to herself as she hurried through the hallways. Those new girls never were going to learn how to handle her Chandra, and she, who had been the girl's nurse since she was a tiny little chit, well, wasn't this more work for her, having to look after her charge and extra servants on top of that? To think that she'd been so proud when her Chandra had made such a marriage to that handsome foreign prince! Wasn't he trouble now!

"I tell them and I tell them," she scolded the heavy tapestries, "watch her! Turn your back and off she goes, dancing about in the nude on the high tower or spellcasting in the stableyard, and never a thought for her poor old nurse sent to fetch her for her father."

"She's on her way," said a voice suddenly, and Aba spun around and clutched at her breast. The outlander was standing there in the hallway, and he was smiling at her like he hadn't risen up out of nowhere for the express purpose of driving old women mad. She peered suspiciously at him and he smiled gently back. She never knew what to make of him; no one quite knew what he did for the prince or why he'd been among the (far, far too many, as if Lord Balin couldn't provide staff aplenty!) servants the prince had brought with him after the marriage, but he seemed inexplicably to like her.

Aba sniffed. "Her father--"

"--is looking for her in the council chambers, yes," the outlander said. "She was up the high tower again. I've told her."

"Hmmph," Aba said. "And what was she doing up there?"

The outlander spread his hands. "She's a Wizard of the Nine," he said, the way Chandra always did: as if that excused every improper behavior.

"Well, I'm just glad to see her taking some responsibility for her future," Aba said. "It's about time she paid more attention to her father's duties."

"Chandra has always taken her responsibilities seriously," the outlander said, and shrugged his shoulders as if to say that should be obvious.

Aba sniffed again; to think that this stranger would lecture her on her charge! Hadn't she been the girl's nurse since she was a tiny little chit? Well, if Chandra had been found, there were a dozen other things she had to oversee. With a grudging nod to the outlander she marched off.

Aaron watched her go with a wry smile that he knew better than to show to anyone other than Chandra or Dar. So much about Chandra had become wonderfully clear once they had been introduced to -- presented to, nearly, and never mind that Darvish was the prince who would be her lord, someday -- old Aba. As much as Chandra fretted over her relationship with her father, it was Aba and the still absent Rajeet who'd had the shaping of much of Chandra's outlook on life. The two older women had alternately coddled and scolded the girl who was both their lord's young heir and a Wizard of the Nine, and Chandra had only her father's early teaching to keep her from the worst sort of arrogance.

As it was, she had plenty of a mostly harmless sort of arrogance. Aaron chuckled to himself and swung back up onto the window ledge. Chandra hadn't lived in this castle since her mother had died nearly seven years ago, and she had never concerned herself much with its passageways. That's what guards were for, she'd said, and Aaron and Dar had rolled their eyes at each other until she stomped her foot at them. They called Aaron's wandering "keeping his hand in and on" (as if Chandra would ever let her father cut off his hands for thieving) and pretended \-- Chandra in particular -- that they weren't criticizing her father's security already.

It had been an interesting challenge for Aaron, finding his way around Lord Balin's keep. Where Ischia had been built up and down the sides of a volcano and the whole island of Cisali had never offered a hill where a mountain would fit, Jacobi was entirely flat. The island was covered with tiny hamlets, mostly surrounded by farmland, and wide well-maintained roads. Aaron and Dar found it unsettlingly bucolic for the first several ninedays -- it hadn't helped that Lord Balin had taken them, or rather Dar and Chandra, with everyone else trailing obediently behind, on a tour to display their new marriage as soon as they'd arrived. Dar had made a number of private remarks about the delights of the open road, but Aaron had been a little bit relieved. The three of them had never had to spend time together that wasn't on the road or in a sickbed (or both), and he'd wanted to put off as long as possible the awkward time when Dar and Chandra would settle into the realization that they were married to each other while he was completely extraneous....

From the roof of the covered walkway he skinned easily down the kitchen wall on its sturdy brickwork. (There was no stucco in this castle, much to his relief.) This inside corner was tucked away behind the sculpted stonework facing the main courtyard, and Aaron dropped down onto the flagstones and brushed the tiny bits of brick dust from his fingers. It was definitely pleasant at last to be stretching his arms out to the fullest without any pain. Dar would be in the weapons yard now, enjoying stretching his own scars and diligently training past the maiming of his hand, and he would almost certainly be both shirtless and sweaty.

Aaron sincerely wished he could train himself out of blushing. Dar and Chandra had both expressed sincere gratitude that he could not.

It was a continuing surprise to him that the three of them could stay as close as they did. He loved...he was desperately attached to Dar and he had found a true friend in Chandra; the two of them seemed to enjoy each other's company even when arguing, which they did like the unceasing turning of the Nine Stars Above, and expect nothing of him but that he stay with them. In Cisali he had been Dar's pet thief, but Chandra had no need of any such service yet. And neither she nor her father would ever think of him as anyone's pet -- after all, he was a hero, one of the saviors of Ischia!

He was still chuckling to himself over that as he turned the final corner into the weapons yard. Dar was pressing close with Lord Balin's arms master and Aaron could, indeed, see the lines of sweat tracing the muscles of his naked back as Dar swung his practice blade. The rhythmic pounding of weapon on weapon washed over Aaron and away again. He couldn't hear so much as a whisper from his father's voice telling him that he ought to have a sword in his own hands; the sheer horror his father would feel if he knew just what it was that Aaron wanted in his hands at that moment was an excellent distraction. He found himself a shaded seat along the wall and settled in to appreciate the view.

Darvish spun his scimitar in an unnecessarily complex block as he saw Aaron slip into the yard. Dukar narrowed his eyes and sped up, forcing Darvish to step back and dodge left to keep his guard up; now the sun was in his face and he couldn't see Aaron at all.

He laughed, a little breathlessly, and said, "Nine Above, have mercy!"

Dukar snorted with amusement and pressed Darvish back two more steps. "Focus, my lord," he said. His voice was even, but Darvish knew that the sweat beading on his forehead was enough of a victory.

The next attack was back on the training pattern, and Darvish lifted his arm for the correct block and riposte.

Dukar nodded approvingly. "Better," he said, and carried on with the lesson. By the time he was done, shadows were stretching quite a bit farther across the yard and Darvish was sure he had shed enough sweat to drown Ischia's Lady. Aaron was still leaning back on the bench by the armory door, ankles neatly crossed and a lazy smile barely showing at the corner of his mouth. Darvish couldn't imagine a better reward for his hard work.

"Whew," he said after Dukar left them, pouring most of a skin of water over his head and shaking it out of his hair vigorously. "He's even tougher than old Inga."

"You looked to be enjoying yourself," Aaron said.

Darvish took another swallow of water and tipped his head back to empty the rest of the skin over his chest. He didn't have to be watching to know where Aaron's gaze would be resting. It was oddly touching how little it took to be seductive for Aaron; Darvish didn't need any of the elaborate flirtations and poses he'd learned in his father's court, although sometimes he used them anyway when Aaron seemed in the mood to be amused. Today he merely grinned and said, "I was." Aaron's smile in return was half-stunned and entirely adoring, and Darvish felt his chest tighten. He cleared his throat and said, "Shall I go clean up and meet you somewhere?"

"No," said Aaron huskily. Darvish raised his eyebrows. Aaron rose smoothly to his feet and ran one hand across Darvish's sweat-slick chest. Darvish's breath caught. "Meet me somewhere now," Aaron said.

"Gladly," Darvish said.

Giving up wine had taught him a great deal about self-control; he drew on that now to keep from laying Aaron back across the bench right here in the weapons yard. It was only polite, they'd agreed, to avoid rubbing Chandra's people's noses in the fact that their new lordling had brought his lover along on his treaty marriage, and so far even Chandra had managed not to drop it accidentally in conversation, no matter how amusing it would have been to all of them. At times like these, though, when he had to walk beside Aaron across the weapons yard and up a back staircase to get to the hayloft above the tertiary stable, courtesy could go hang itself. Aaron was perfectly cool and collected, and that was all that brought them safely to this private little nest.

This late in the season all of the actual hay had been brought down, and what was left were the rows of extra carriage harnesses under cloth and the golden aroma of summer. In the far corner, where the beams slanted down to meet the floor, thick piles of blankets drooped messily across the dusty floorboards, and right in front of him Aaron was unlacing his vest as he walked backwards.

Darvish followed him, both of them staring down at their hands on Aaron's vest and, when that was discarded, shirt. A blush was spilling down Aaron's fair skin from his face to his chest as he was bared. Darvish put his hands on Aaron's still-clothed shoulders to stop him long enough for Darvish to bend and press his mouth against the side of Aaron's neck. Aaron's pulse pounded frantically against his lips and Aaron quivered under his hands. Darvish kissed his way up to the base of Aaron's jaw, right below his ear, and whispered, "I love you."

Aaron shuddered and his fingers flew across the laces until his shirt was open down his chest. Darvish slid his hands down the shirt to Aaron's hips and up again on bare skin to lift it over Aaron's head. He tossed it carelessly in the direction of Aaron's vest and pulled Aaron against him. Aaron made a small noise in the back of his throat and closed his eyes as skin met skin, and Darvish tipped his head to kiss his mouth.

Nine Above and One Below, but there was nothing quite like kissing Aaron. "Aren't you getting bored having just one lover?" Chandra had asked with her usual tact about a nineday after they'd finally finished the interminable honeymoon tour. Darvish had laughed and asked her if she was offering to help keep him entertained, but the truth was that he'd never had to plan beyond the next goblet of wine and the next willing body before, and this new tactic of studying one love was the farthest thing from boredom that he could imagine. He fully intended to become an expert in the way Aaron's breath caught when Darvish pressed his mouth just below his collarbone, for example; he wanted to be able to recognize every scar on Aaron's thighs with fingertips and tonguetip; he desperately needed to know what made Aaron prefer biting Darvish's left nipple to biting his right. Someday, he was sure, Chandra would decide to help him with this project, but for now it was up to him alone, and he took this task very seriously indeed.

Chandra wished, just a little bit, that Darvish would pay even half the attention to keeping up appearances that he was currently lavishing on Aaron's mouth. She nudged the circle of pebbles into the proper configuration and ground her teeth as that caused the image in her scrying bowl to waver. A Wizard of the Nine should -- and she giggled a little to herself, and was pleased to see that that actually steadied the water's image instead of scattering it further -- be able to eavesdrop on her husband's assignations and cast a spell to keep wandering stablehands away from them at the same time.

There. Now, if her father didn't need her for any more business this afternoon, she should have plenty of privacy to enjoy this little show. She settled cross-legged on top of the tack truck directly underneath Aaron and Dar's nest of blankets in the hayloft and balanced her scrying bowl in her lap. She could have included sounds in her spell as well, but there was a certain satisfaction in barely hearing the noises the two of them made with her own ears.

Aaron had his arms around Dar's shoulders and was slowly writhing against Dar's bare chest as they kissed. Chandra picked up the end of one braid and stuffed it in her mouth as she watched, biting down to stay silent as Dar bent backwards, his mouth open and a faint groan echoing down from above as Aaron slid downward and pressed his cheek against the lacing of Dar's trousers. He stayed there for a long moment as Dar's hands opened and closed on the air above Aaron's head, and then he rolled gracefully to his feet again and tugged Dar back toward the blankets. Chandra nodded encouragingly as they stripped off boots and trousers, swinging her scrypoint around for the best view as first Aaron and then Dar bent over.

She was pretty sure she knew how brave it was of Aaron to be naked like this in front of Dar -- for all that they'd seen each other unclothed many times before, she couldn't have done it, not in front of either of them, and she knew that if she were physically present she'd be unable to look them in the eyes (or elsewhere). Like this, though, with her power reflecting through her soul and the sex safely contained in the smooth metal circle of the edges of her scrying bowl, she was comfortably distant and yet embraced in Dar and Aaron's loving. She lifted one hand to tap the locket at her throat and smiled fondly. She didn't need to open it and hold the braided black and copper hairs to orient herself on the two of them any more.

In her bowl Aaron pressed his fist against his own mouth, but Chandra could hear his strangled moans as Dar licked his way down Aaron's stomach. The first time he'd done that Aaron had shrieked loudly enough that Chandra had come running down the hall -- this was still in Ischia before the marriage, and she shouldn't have been quartered so close to Dar's rooms, but she had been settled there in the chaos following their return before anyone had thought to object -- to find a red-faced Aaron hiding under the bedcovers while Darvish coolly explained to the servants that Aaron had tried to get up and pulled his wounds unexpectedly. She didn't think they'd believed it any more than she had, but they'd had to bow and go away, while her retreat had been back to her own rooms and her scrying bowl, that time with a sound component as well.

"I'll take that as a compliment, then," Dar had been saying, wrapping an arm carefully around Aaron's waist and speaking more or less directly into Aaron's stomach.

"Please do," Aaron had said. His hand had stroked tentatively across Dar's broad shoulders.

"Never thought I'd have to tell you to make less noise," Dar had said, and he'd pushed the sheets away as he'd shifted to lie between Aaron's spread legs, at which point Chandra had realized that there was a great deal of difference between nudity and nudity with intent and had shaken the bowl clear just before Darvish's mouth would have closed over its target.

Now she bent happily over her bowl as Dar's head rocked luxuriously up and down. This was her favorite act to watch; Aaron kept his eyes squeezed shut almost any time that Dar's mouth was on him and Dar's eyes fluttered open and shut as he concentrated, but she could see everything. She watched for all of them. Dar's full mouth was as red as Aaron's shaft, and every few strokes she could see the wet glide of his tongue across the crown of it. Aaron's pale stomach tensed when Dar did that, and his free hand spasmed on Dar's shoulders. Fresh sweat was beading up on Dar's back and she could faintly hear him making muffled but appreciative noises every time Aaron's control broke and his hips twisted up off of the blanket toward Dar.

Aaron was moaning continuously now, wordless and needing. Dar was unsurprisingly vocal during sex, begging and commanding and calling out for the Nine and One to witness his bliss, but Aaron couldn't speak any more than he could open his eyes. Chandra bit down hard on her braid and silently urged Dar on; he always seemed to know just what to do to make Aaron throw his head back so that his throat was bared to Chandra's eyes and his chest was heaving with each breath.

There, there, and Aaron's hand pressed flat on Darvish's shoulder as he cried out and lifted his hips to Darvish's mouth. Chandra breathed out in a long shudder and found she'd closed her scrypoint in on the rhythmic motion of Dar's throat as he swallowed. Her own mouth curled up in a satisfied smile.

Above her, Aaron's head fell back to the floor with a gentle thump.

Across the castle, Aba stood in the middle of her charge's sitting room and huffed impatiently. Chandra was going to be late for dinner if no one found her soon, and this dress that the maid had laid out was all wrong for the company tonight. And she understood from Oham that Darvish was nowhere he was supposed to be either!

Well, they were newly married, Aba reminded herself, and a certain amount of indulgence was going to be needed for a while. Maybe she should send someone out looking for that spooky outlander; he might know where Aba's charges had hied themselves to, if anyone could in turn find him.

Really, it was a wonder anything got done around here. Aba shook her head and sighed sadly.

 


End file.
